Judy Cassab

(1920- )

CASSAB, JUDY (1920– ), Australian painter. Born Judith Kaszab in Vienna, she spent her childhood in Budapest, and studied there and in Prague. After surviving War War II in Nazi-occupied Budapest by concealing her Jewish identity, in 1951 she immigrated to Sydney with her husband and children. Cassab held her first one-woman show the following year, and became noted as a portrait painter, winning a number of coveted awards. She was commissioned to paint portraits of various members of the British royal family. From the late 1950s she occupied a prominent place in nonrepresentational art. Cassab's work is characterized by a strong sense of color balance and composition. Among the best-known recent Australian artists, she was the only woman to win the Archibald Prize, one of the most important Australian art prizes, twice, and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1988. Her Diaries were published in 1995.